Democratic Islam Congress, Abira students affirm Kurdish education right

Positions and protests rejecting the restriction of Kurdish language education to three lessons per week continue, with calls affirming the Kurdish people’s right to learn in their mother tongue, preserve their language, culture and heritage, and ensure that Kurdish language education is offered at all school levels as part of the Kurdish people’s identity and linguistic rights.

In this context, the Democratic Islam Congress issued a statement to the public on Monday on the Kurdish people’s right to learn in their mother tongue. The statement was read by Congress member Mullah Suleiman Ahmed Ali in the presence of other members at the Congress headquarters in Qamishlo.

The statement opened with verses from the holy Quran, including: “And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your languages and your colors. Indeed in that are signs for those of knowledge.”

It also quoted the verse: “O mankind, We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may know one another. Surely the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous among you.”

The statement noted that Islam does not favor one language over another, nor does it regard human diversity as a basis for distinction or exclusion. All languages are creations and signs of Allah, and denying or restricting any human language amounts, in essence, to denying one of Allah’s signs in His creation.

“From this perspective, every person has an inherent right to learn their mother tongue, speak it, teach it to their children, and preserve their memory, culture and heritage through it,” the statement added.

It noted that the Kurdish people are an indigenous people who have lived on their historic land for thousands of years and have a language, culture and heritage passed down through generations from parents and ancestors. Preserving this language and culture is not a privilege at anyone else’s expense, but rather the preservation of part of Syria’s human and national richness.

The statement explained that justice requires all peoples and communities of the homeland to be equal in dignity and rights, and that their languages, cultures and beliefs should be viewed as a source of national richness, rather than a cause for fear or marginalization. A strong homeland is not one in which its communities are identical, but one in which their differences coexist with dignity and respect.

Accordingly, the Democratic Islam Congress affirmed its support for the Kurdish people’s right to education and learning in Kurdish and to preserve their language, culture and heritage, in a way that strengthens coexistence, fraternity and partnership among all communities of the Syrian people. “Language is not merely words; it is memory, identity and a bridge connecting people with their ancestors and children. Whoever preserves a people’s language preserves a part of this homeland’s humanity,” it said.

Following the statement, co-chair of the Democratic Islam Congress, Mulla Mohammed al-Gharzi, spoke about the need to guarantee the rights of Kurds and all communities to study in their mother tongue, citing numerous Quranic verses and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad.

In the town of Abira, in the Alyan area of the northern countryside of Jal Agha in the Jazira region, Kurdish students and their parents held a protest in the courtyard of the Al-Baldah (Town) Preparatory School, calling for the curriculum to be taught in Kurdish and objecting to the Education Ministry’s decision to limit Kurdish-language instruction to only three classes per week.

During the protest, students and their parents held up banners and chanted slogans demanding their right to be taught in Kurdish, stressing that it is a constitutional and legal right and that it represents their identity, history and social memory.

During the protest, student Haifa Ahmed read a statement addressed to the Jal Agha Education Complex, with the aim of making their voices heard by the Education Ministry. It began: “We, Kurdish students, have studied in our mother tongue since we first began attending school, from the first grade to where we are today at the preparatory level. Learning in our language is one of our legitimate rights. As members of the Kurdish people, we have a language of our own.”

The statement noted that learning in Kurdish is a linguistic right that Kurds have been deprived of for decades as a result of marginalization policies pursued by fascist regimes. It stressed that learning in one’s mother tongue is a universal right and that the United Nations Charter contains provisions affirming that every people has the right to learn in its mother tongue. 

The statement said the Transitional Government’s Education Ministry decision to allocate only three classes to Kurdish is aimed at stripping Kurds of their linguistic rights, describing the move as completely unacceptable and stressing that no authority has the right to deprive them of a right they will not relinquish.

It added that the decision lacks legitimacy, explaining that the Kurdish people’s demands are limited to exercising their right to learn, speak and be educated in their language, without hostility toward other languages or any desire to impose Kurdish on them.

The statement praised Kurdish as a rich historical language, stressing that it is at the heart of the Kurdish people’s identity, which has faced attempts at assimilation and denial that threatened its literature with extinction. It added that, thanks to the sacrifices of the July 19 Revolution, the Kurds succeeded in developing their language and would not give up their right to protect it in the face of any unlawful decisions.

At the conclusion of the statement, students and their parents called on the administration of the Jal Agha Education Complex to convey their demands to the Education Ministry and urge it to repeal the decision, which they described as affecting their linguistic and historical rights acquired over the past 14 years. They stressed the need to amend the decision to include Kurdish-language education at all educational levels.

The statement concluded with slogans: “Long live the Kurdish language; it is our identity, existence, dignity and history,” and “There is no life without language.”

ANHA

Qamişlo

Çilaxa